Sun Dogs
by lynch98
Summary: Zuko and Ty Lee hadn't always had a happy childhood at first, but over time it became their childhood. They would never forget the memories they made together.- A series of short stories and oneshots about Zuko and Ty Lee's childhood together. Yes, I have officially brought a long forgotten and underused pairing back from the dead.
1. Chapter 1

**Your eyes do not deceive you, this is indeed a Ty Luko series. I always thought that their relationship was totally unexplored, even though it was hinted that they knew each other well as children. Add that to the fact that I haven't seen this paring in years what with all the Tyzula stories, I wanted to try something new and different. (No offense to Tyzula fans.) I know I should be updating "Remember My Name", but trust me, I'm working on it.**

 **So here it is! The usual disclaimers apply.**

"Hi, Zuzu!"

Zuko turned around at the hated nickname, about to shout at whoever dared call him him that, to find Ty Lee beaming at him. It was one of his sister's friends going out of their way to say hi to him; he was unsure how to react to such a thing and momentarily forgot about his nickname.

"Uh, hello." Zuko greeted awkwardly, a little creeped out by her smile. "You're... Mai, right?"

Ty Lee's huge smile instantly turned into a frown. How dare he mistake her for that gloomy blah? "No! My name is Ty Lee!" The creepy smile was back.

Needless to say, Zuko was a little creeped out.

"Oh yeah! Uh... Shouldn't you be playing with Azula or something? I mean, isn't that what you always do?"

"Well, no, it's not what I _always_ do, I like other things! Like gymnastics and aura reading!" That creepy smile got bigger. "Would you like me to read _your_ aura?"

"If you can do such a thing, can't you read it by looking at me?"

"Well, I'm sort of new at this. I need to hold the other person's hands to get a clear read."

Zuko was even more creeped out. He had to plot his escape while he could. "Sorry, I can't! I need to..." Zuko fumbled with his words for a second.

"What do you need to do? This'll only take a second!" Ty Lee inquired as she leaned in closer.

Zuko finally found his words. "I need to... Go to the bathroom?" He wanted to hit himself on the head as soon as the words left his mouth. By some miracle, it actually worked.

Ty Lee looked sad for a split second, then returned to her usual cheerful demeanor. "Ok! But you have to promise to let me read it after you're done!"

"I promise." Zuko knew he was horrible at lying, but somehow this girl bought it.

Ty Lee then stuck out her pinky. "Pinky promise, Zuzu?"

 _"You can't be serious."_ Zuko reluctantly extended his pinky, locked it with Ty Lee's, and shook it with a nervous grin on his face. "Yeah, sure. Pinky promise." Then he turned around and walked as fast as he could without breaking into a sprint.

"Don't take too long, Zuzu!"

"Don't call me that!"

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The sun was almost done setting, and it would be night soon. He had been hiding in the bathroom for almost three hours. Surely by now, that creepy pink girl would have gone home by now. He would've tolerated her if she didn't so nonchalantly throw around his hated nickname like they were best friends.

 _"Zuzu... I hate this. Just another one of Azula's 'friends.'"_

It was full dark outside, and he was sick of hiding; there wasn't a whole lot to do in the bathroom, after all. Fortunately, it was a palace and he was royalty, so of course no one would make him come out.

Ursa would no doubt be wondering where Zuko was. He would need to come up with an explanation as to where he had been all this time.

Finally, he carefully opened the door and peeked his head out.

Up the hall, down the hall, no crazy pink girl to be seen. He slowly made his way to the end of the hall to his room.

He was finally safe! He plopped down on his bed face up and sleep began to overtake him.

"So now can I read your aura?"

Zuko's eyes shot open and to his horror he saw Ty Lee sitting on the nightstand without a care in the world, as if she wasn't stalking Zuko.

He got out of bed and furiously made his way to where Ty Lee was sitting. He really wanted to wipe that smile off her face. "What the hell at you still doing here?"he whispered in a dangerous voice.

"But you pinky promised-"

"To hell with the pinky promise!" Zuko cut her off. "Do you have any idea how late it is? Shouldn't you be home or something?"

Ty Lee crossed her arms defiantly. "A promise is a promise, Zuzu. You promised to let me read you aura when you got back from the bathroom. Well, you're back and now you have to let me read it. I thought princes were supposed to be honor bound and all that."

Zuko contemplated his options for a moment. Was this girl out of her mind? He could call the guards and have her removed from the palace for the rest of her days. Yes, that would work.

But as much as he hated to admit it, Ty Lee was right; she was using the honor card against him and whether he liked it or not, breaking that promise would be dishonorable. He grudgingly stuck out his hands. " _Fine_. Read it so you can get out."

That creepy smile got even bigger and creepier and Zuko instantly regretted not calling the guards as she eagerly gripped his hands and closed her eyes.

Seconds passed, then minutes. Pretty soon Zuko was getting tired of all this. He was becoming desperate enough to break his code of honor and call the guards, when Ty Lee suddenly opened her eyes and let go.

"All done!" The perky acrobat said.

"Okay, so what does my aura look like?"

Ty Lee looked momentarily dumbfounded. "Excuse me?"

"You read my aura, so what does it look like?" Zuko felt like he was speaking to a five year old girl and enunciated every syllable.

"I'm not telling you."

Now it was Zuko's turn to look dumbfounded. "I spent three hours hiding from you!" He sputtered in rage. "You wouldn't even let me go to sleep and _now_ you're telling me you won't even tell me what my aura is? What the hell did I let you read it for?"

Ty Lee flashed an innocent smile. "You promised to let me read it, but I never said that I would tell you. Till next time, Zuzu."

Before Zuko could say anything else, Ty Lee jumped out the window and cartwheeled into the darkness.

Zuko just gave up and went to sleep.

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Ty Lee could not sleep; she saw something in Zuko that she'd never seen in any other boys. His aura was a deep blue with spots of yellow. It meant that he had an arrogant attitude, but had a heart of gold deep down.

She liked people with hearts of gold.

 **For now, this will be a series of one-shots and drabbles and such with no defined overall story. However, that may change in the future.**

 **Thank you for reading and please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"So what do you think of Zuzu?" Ty Lee asked Mai when she visited her house.

Mai looked slightly perplexed. "Zuzu? Who's that?"

Ty Lee rolled her eyes in response. "I'm talking about Zuko! Azula's brother?"

"Oh, yeah. Well, what about him?"

Ty Lee leaned in closer and spoke in a hushed voice. "I mean do you think he's cute?"

Mai recoiled slightly at her friend's question. "What? Why are you asking me this? I don't even know him."

"But you've seen him, right? Ty Lee wheedled.

"Yes, Ty Lee, I have seen Prince Zuko."

"So why don't you tell me if he's cute or not?"

"Because I don't feel like it."

"Aw,you're no fun."

"So I've been told. Where is this all coming from, anyway?"

Ty Lee, for the first time in her life it seemed, was silent. She avoided Mai's eyes at any cost. Suddenly, it dawned on her exactly what Ty Lee was getting at. "Oh, I see what's going on." Mai said while smirking. "You like him, don't you?"

As if to confirm Mai's question, Ty Lee's cheeks turned red almost instantly. Maybe she wouldn't have to spend the rest of the day bored after all.

"Yes, fine. I like him a _little_."

" _'A little'_ meaning..."

"Well, more than a little."

Mai couldn't stop herself from sighing in exasperation. "Ty Lee, how much do you actually know about him? Have you ever even had a conversation together?

"Well, the other night I read his aura."

"Unbelievable." Mai deadpanned. "You went straight to the whole aura thing?"

"It's what I'm good at, after all."

"How did you even get Zuko to let you read his aura?"

"It's actually a pretty funny story! I was going to do it from the start, but he said he needed to go to the bathroom. So he left, I went to his room and waited and waited and before I knew it, it was already dark and he was about to go to bed. He... didn't look too happy to see me but he let me read it anyway!"

Mai's mouth hung open in shock. She didn't know whether to laugh or to cry at Ty Lee's story. "Ty Lee... How... What... Do you have no experience with boys _at all_?"

"What do you mean by that?" Ty Lee asked innocently.

"Most guys would not want you to _stalk_ them so you can read their aura!"

"It's fine, Mai! He didn't even call the guards on me! I made sure of it."

Mai was caught off guard by this. "What? How did you do that?"

"I made him promise to let me read his aura, and I held him to that promise when I was in his room. 'Code of honor' and all that."

Mai was silent at this new bit of information for a few seconds; finally, she just gave up and tried to move the conversation forward. "Okay, well you're not going to be getting any positive attention from him anytime soon." She told the acrobat.

Ty Lee sulked in response. "Then what do I do?"

Mai shrugged her shoulders. "Just wait a week or two and then try talking to him again. And I mean a _normal_ conversation; not one about auras and pink and circuses."

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If a week was seven days for everyone else, it felt like seven years for Ty Lee. True enough, she was face to face with Zuko once again.

Zuko immediately turned red upon registering Ty Lee's presence, and almost instantly started fumbling for the right combination of words to get her to leave forever.

It was to no avail, as the acrobat let her thoughts known first. "Hey, Zuko. I'm sorry about the other day."

He stopped fumbling to look at her in utter disbelief; the insane, aura-feeling pink girl was actually _apologizing_ for her pink, aura-feeling insanity? How could this be? Once again, the word-fumbling began.

"But-what-how... What?!"

Ty Lee simply smiled in response.

An idea immediately hit Zuko; he had to know one thing before banishing her from the palace forever. "Okay, fine; I'll accept your apology."

Ty Lee's smile grew bigger. "Really? You will?! Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou-!"

"On one condition."

Ty Lee's cheering abruptly stopped with an almost audible crash and her smile turned literally upside down. "Ugh! Ok, fine. What is it?"

"You need to tell me what my aura is." Zuko said simply.

Ty Lee immediately perked up. "Oh, okay! That's easy!"

 _"This girl is insane..."_

"Your aura was blue with spots of yellow in it." She finally said after a minute.

"Okay, so what does that even mean?"

"I'm not telling you."

Zuko was even more dumbfounded than before, if such a thing were possible. "What!? What do you mean you aren't telling me?! If you don't I won't accept your apology!"

Ty Lee's creepy smile was back. "You have to. I said that I would tell you what it is, not what it meant! Remember, code of honor."

Zuko literally had steam coming out od his ears and wanted to explode, but oh that damned code of honor just wouldn't let him. "Fine, I forgive you." He said through gritted teeth. "Now, GET OUT OF MY BATHROOM!"

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 **Heh. Bet you never guessed they were in a bathroom together! Please r &r!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Your eyes don't deceive you. This is an update. Enjoy!**

Zuko didn't often get the chance to sleep in, due to his firebending training and studies and just overall being a member of the Royal Family. Contrary to public opinion, royals didn't often get much sleep, and Zuko especially getting only around 4 hours a night. He was just about to hit his 5th hour of sleep when…

"Morning, Zuzu!"

Zuko simply rolled over in his bed and covered his ears with his pillow. "Shut up."

"Get up, dum-dum!"

"Shut up, I hate you."

"Come on, Zuko. Seriously, get up."

He rolled over and looked at the calendar by his bed along with the hourglass. "Why are you even up right now? It's four in the morning! The sun's not even up yet!"

"I have a surprise for you, Zuzu."

"Oh great, more surprises. As if the one standing right in front of me wasn't enough. Which, by the way, should get out of my room."

Azula simply rolled her eyes at her brother. "I'm serious. You have to see this."

Zuko rolled over again. "If I felt like seeing anything, don't you think I would've opened my eyes by now?"

"If you don't get out of bed, I will make you get out."

Zuko cracked one eye open to look at his sister and contemplated choosing between pain and sleep. "Is it really that important that _you_ of all people got out of bed before sunrise to let me know?"

Azula was already tired of this little game. "It's not a surprise; It's about Ty Lee. This is _your_ problem to deal with and I don't appreciate being woken up because you were incapable of dealing with it."

Suddenly, he was awake and sat bolt upright in his bed. "Tell me she's not here right now." He also noticed the bags under Azula's eyes and could tell she wasn't happy about being woken up.

"Hi, Zuko." Said that dreaded voice that had been haunting him. Then the physical manifestation of that voice walked into his room.

He threw himself back onto his bed in defeat and buried his face in his pillow. "I hate my life." He muffled.

Ty Lee wore an expression of sheepish guilt on her face as she tried to find the right words to say. "Hey look, I know my behavior's been… out of order lately. And I just wanted to… Apologize?"

Zuko lifted his head to look at her with an incredulous expression. "Apologize for what? Stalking me? Hiding in my room? Hiding in my _bathroom_? Being obsessed with my aura? _Waking me up at 5 in the morning?!_ " He could feel himself getting worked up with every word that came out of his mouth, and all he wanted to do was go to sleep.

Ty Lee, who was normally a very talkative person, struggled to find better words to put her feelings in. "Uh… well, all of it I guess?"

Zuko's sanity was slipping every second this conversation carried on. But he looked at Ty Lee's eyes and saw genuine remorse, and he always had a soft spot for feelings and such.

Above all that, he needed to end this conversation quickly so he could regain what precious sleep he needed. "Okay, fine. I accept your apology. Now _get out!_ "

Just like that, her mood changed. She ran towards Zuko's bed and literally lifted him in a big hug.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"Oh my Agni, PUT ME DOWN!"

Ty Lee returned to reality to see that Zuko had no clothes on save for his undergarments. Azula would've laughed at the awkwardness of the situation but was repulsed by the sight of Zuko naked. His face and whole body turned as red as his natural element.

Then his sheets lit on fire.

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"What, he just lost it right there?" Mai asked Ty Lee.

She looked down at her feet. "Yeeeah. Let's just say he didn't exactly take it too well.

Mai let a rare smirk appear on his face. "Well, what do you expect when you just give a guy a big hug while he's almost naked and doesn't want it?"

"Stop it! I didn't know he was in his underwear."

The smirk grew. "Oh, _really?_ You just 'accidentally' hugged him to 'apologize' for hiding in his bathroom?" Mai snickered.

"Shut up!" Ty Lee whined.

"Come one, you know I'm just messing with you."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to listen to it."

"But let's be honest, I've seen the way you look at him. You really like him, don't you?"

A blush creeped on to the acrobat's face. "Yeah." She said softly.

"But that isn't how you should go about it. You need to change tactics fast. I'm surprised he didn't have you arrested."

"Oh he tried, but Azula calmed him down."

Mai knew exactly what she meant by 'calmed down'. "I'd stay away from him for a while if I were you. I already told you this. You need to just completely change tactics."

Ty Lee thought hard for a little while, then instantly lit up. "Oh, I know! You can be my planner!"

Mai froze. "What? Your _planner?_ "

"Yes! Maybe you can help me and give me ideas on what to do!"

"I already gave you mine. It's called 'stay away from him before you land in the dungeon.'"

"I meant that you can help me with all that high society stuff; Zuko counts as 'high society', doesn't he? You literally grew up in it, so you can probably teach me a few things."

Mai looked at her incredulously. "You say that like it's a _good_ thing. Trust me, you do not want to get involved in any of that."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeeease?"

Mai looked away instantly, for she knew that if she looked into her friend's puppy eyes, she'd give in almost instantly.

But she turned her head slightly…

" _Damn it."_

"Fine, but you better not land me in prison with you. The first thing you need to do is _stay away._ Just give him some space for a while before you make another pass at him."

Ty Lee gave Mai a confused look. "Is that what they taught you?"

"That's what common sense taught most of us. That's all it is."

"Then what?"

"Then you actually try to get to know him."

"I already tried that."

"'Getting to know him' doesn't equate to stalking him."

"Well, then how am I supposed to get him to notice me?"

Mai heaved her thousandth sigh that day. "You want him to notice you in a good way, as in the 'I'd like to get to know you better' way."

"So I should just let him come to me?"

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but that works too. Either way, _just leave him alone for now."_

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Zuko woke up with a start; he looked at his hourglass and it was noon already. He flopped back onto his bed and groaned into his pillow.

" _Great, the day's basically over. What's the point of getting out of bed?"_

He wanted to believe that incident with Ty Lee earlier was just a bad dream, but it felt all too real to be such. He literally rolled off his bed and stood up to get ready for what was left of his day. As he was going through his morning routine he went over possible solutions to this nightmare in his mind.

" _Should I firebend at her?"_

He dismissed that idea immediately, since he knew what kind of chi-blocking powers those fists had, despite her innocent appearance.

" _Should I have her arrested? I probably could if I gave the order."_

He thought about that a little bit more just because he felt like it, but remembered that he tried that already and Azula… stopped him.

" _Probably when Azula isn't there to mess everything up as always."_

He thought maybe he should seek some counsel, but his uncle was gone at Ba Sing Se bringing down the Earth Kingdom, then a flame went off in his head.

" _Of course, why didn't I think of this earlier?"_

Then he realized how awkward the conversation would be.

" _Oh,_ _ **Agni…**_ _"_

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"Mom?"

"Yes, Zuko?"

As Ursa was sitting in the library, looking up at him from her book, Zuko thought about how best to start this painful conversation.

He decided to not be as direct as he usually was.

"You know that girl, Ty Lee? You know, Azula's friend that always wears pink and talks about auras all the time?"

Zuko saw a knowing glint in her eye. "Yes, I know who she is. She's just a delightful girl, isn't she? What about her?"

He decided to throw his plan of beating around the bush out the window. "She's stalking me and won't leave me alone! She is _not_ delightful."

Silence.

Silence stretched out for longer than he expected. He was getting uncomfortable and wished that he had never brought it up in the first place.

Ursa burst out laughing. Zuko went from confused about how to go about the subject to being totally flabbergasted. Then he went from flabbergasted to indignant.

"How is that even remotely funny? This is like the third time I've had to deal with her and it's getting old!" Zuko nearly shouted.

"You remember a while back when you said something about 'girls are crazy' or something along those lines?" said Ursa.

"Yes, and I have yet to be proven wrong."

"That's just her own way of saying she likes you."

Zuko felt that this conversation was going nowhere. "So? I don't like her!"

Ursa gazed at her son knowingly. "Are you positive about that?"

Zuko went from indignant to uncomfortable. Oh, Agni this wasn't fun. "Well… maybe if she wasn't so creepy and just everywhere I went."

"Have you tried talking to her about it?"

Zuko threw his arms up in the air. "I don't need to! She's always there bothering me anyway!"

"So you have talked to her about all this?"

"Well, she did apologize to me a while back." He decided to leave out the part about him being in the bathroom when she found him. Even now he could feel a blush creeping onto his face, something that his mother did not miss.

"And what happened?"

Zuko wanted more than anything to just leave, but he started the conversation after all. "She just… apologized to me about it all, and I accepted it."

"So what's the problem?"

Zuko let out a groan. He did _not_ want to get into the details of the story, especially about him being naked during the apology. That would make the conversation go from awkward to just outright impossible. How hard was it for a prince to get advice on how to deal with girls?

"I just don't want to deal with girls right now!"

Ursa sighed and shook her head. "Zuko, it's all a part of growing up. You're thirteen years old now; sooner or later you will have to come to terms with your feelings."

Come to terms with his "feelings?!"That was the last thing he wanted to hear, and as much as he wanted to explode at this mother for saying such a thing, he just couldn't find it in him to get angry at her. "Yeah, I guess. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

Later that night all Zuko could hear were his mother's words. Come to terms with feelings? For Ty Lee?

" _Never!"_

Even with his resolve seemingly strengthened, Zuko couldn't help but toss and turn all night over a certain pink-clad acrobat.

Of course, he was just thinking of ways to rid himself of her, right?

Right?

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Azula found herself at Mai's house frequently, more times than not accompanied by Ty Lee. After their games and such they were lounging in Mai's room, and as uncouth as it seemed she couldn't help but pose a certain question to Ty Lee.

"What's going on with you and my brother, Ty Lee?"

It was a relatively simple question, but it was enough to make a blush creep onto the acrobat's face, something that was not missed by the Fire Nation princess.

"What do you mean, Azula?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. You seem to have a certain… affinity for Zuzu."

"Oh, well yeah, I guess so. Why?"

"I could ask you the same question."

Ty Lee was caught off-guard, like she was most times when talking to Azula. "Uh, what do you mean?"

"I just can't understand it. Why do you choose go after my worthless brother out of all the potential suitors in the Fire Nation?"

Ty Lee was never really one to go against Azula or anything she said, but she had gone too far for her. "Zuko is not worthless! I think he's a sweet boy!"

Now it was Azula's turn to be taken aback, and even Mai snapped out of her boredom-induced reverie to tune in. Did Ty Lee really just go against what she just said? "What did you say to me, Ty Lee?"

That was enough to shake the acrobat to her core. _"Oh boy, I'm in for it now. I guess there's no taking it back."_

"Y-you heard me. I don't believe he's worthless or any of that stuff. How could you even say such things about him?" said Ty Lee with as much courage as she could muster.

Outwardly, Azula appeared to be fuming; but inwardly, she was still trying to register what was happening. _"Is this girl seriously challenging the princess of the Fire Nation? You're just going to let it happen?"_

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 **Sorry for the long wait, but I finally got around to updating and I'm back on the writing train!**

 **I decided to try this whole cliffhanger thing and see if it actually works as well as everyone says it does. Please read and review as it keeps me writing! Thank you!**


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